Business news with words deal+purchase+stock. 16 news.

NEUSOFT Group Ltd will acquire its parent through a share swap, which will double the market value of the Shanghai-listed software vendor to 520 million yuan (US$70.27 million), Neusoft said in a statement yesterday. Chinese software firms, which grew most rapidly, need to boost economies of scale to compete internationally, the Ministry of Information Industry said. Neusoft has received approval from regulators, including the China Securities Regulatory Commission, to buy its parent's assets via a share swap of 1 to 3.5, according to the company's statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. After the purchase, the firm will be valued at 520 million yuan from 280 million yuan now. "The deal is a milestone in the company's history and it will continue to grow through the resources acquired from the parent firm," said Neusoft's chairman Liu Jiren in a Chinese-language statement.

DELEK Real Estate Ltd, the Israeli company that backed out of a US$2.9-billion deal with Jelmoli AG, has agreed to buy 12 Frankfurt-area supermarkets from Metro AG, Germany's biggest retailer, for 243 million euros (US$349 million), Bloomberg News reported on Sunday. Delek, through its Delek Global Real Estate unit, will acquire the buildings from the Real supermarket chain, a subsidiary of Metro, the Netanya, Israel-based company said in an e-mailed statement to the stock exchange. Real will rent 10 of the supermarkets from Delek through 2022, and the other two through 2020, beginning at 16 million euros annually for all the properties. The rent will increase 6.7 percent every five years. "DGRE has again purchased a property with a quality tenant for a long period in a central area, and proved that even in these times it can use its connections to close deals and get good financing," Chief Executive Officer Ilik Rozanski said in the statement. Delek Real Estate, a

CHINA Investment Corp said on Saturday the reference price for its stake in US-based Morgan Stanley was fixed between US$48.07 and US$57.68 per share. The state-owned forex investment firm reached an agreement with Morgan Stanley on Wednesday to invest US$5 billion into the second largest investment bank in the US. The injection was used to purchase equity units that are mandatorily convertible into Morgan Stanley common shares. The two sides agreed CIC would be able to convert the equity units into Morgan Stanley common shares at a price no more than 1.2 times the reference price when the conversion was due. CIC said the share of common stock underlying the convertible securities would not be issued until the exercise of the stock purchase contracts on August 17, 2010. The equity units carried a fixed annual interest rate of nine percent before conversion. Shares held by CIC were agreed to reach no more than 9.9 percent of outstanding shares. Wednesday's agreement came as

NEXT year the mining sector will be dominated by one story: the proposed merger of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, which if successful would create a $350bn (£171.39bn, E238.56bn) giant riding high on the commodities boom. The deal is also likely to be the biggest merger and acquisition of the year, especially at a time of intensifying fears about the credit crunch. If successful, BHP Billiton’s purchase of its dual-listed (London and Australian stock exchanges) rival would create a giant three times as large as its nearest listed competitors. Those firms, which include Xstrata, the Swiss-based miner, and Anglo

MACROVISION Corp, the maker of movie anti-piracy software, dropped the most in six years in Nasdaq trading after agreeing to pay US$2.8 billion, more than double its market value, for Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. Investors questioned Macrovision's strategy and its ability to finance the stock and cash transaction, said Mark Argento, an analyst at Minneapolis-based Craig-Hallum Capital Group, Bloomberg News said. Gemstar, the provider of interactive program listings co-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, had its biggest decline since May 2004 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Macrovision "does not have the liquidity of a larger acquirer," and Gemstar investors were expecting an all-cash deal, said Argento, who doesn't own Gemstar stock. "The Street obviously thinks there's more risk than reward." The purchase of Los Angeles-based Gemstar gives Macrovision a company that was News Corp Chairman Murdoch's worst investment, resulting in almost US$6 billion of

THE country's biggest listed electronics maker is to sell its loss-making computer business to an overseas investor. The Shenzhen-listed TCL Corp said yesterday it would dispose of its PC operations with the sale of an 82-percent stake in the unit. Shares of TCL stopped trading yesterday to await a further announcement. TCL's computer unit lost 67.8 million yuan (US$8.9 million) last year on sales of 2.14 billion yuan, the Huizhou-based company told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange earlier. The move follows Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business and Acer's purchase of Gateway. TCL made a profit in the first half of the year, helped by cost cutting. Its net profit was 45.1 million yuan compared with a net loss of 746.4 million yuan a year earlier. After the sale of the PC unit, TCL will focus on the TV and telephone business. The company recently announced a deal to sell the BlackBerry phone in China next year.

In an about-face, Lehman Brothers has decided to take up position again on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, agreeing in principle to purchase the assets of Van Der Moolen Specialists USA. The deal, which hasn't been finalized yet, allows...

OLYMPUS Corp, the world's largest maker of surgical cameras, has agreed to buy Gyrus Group Plc for about 935 million pounds (US$1.9 billion). The aim is to expand its most profitable business, Bloomberg News reported. Olympus offered 630 pence in cash for each share of Wokingham, England-based Gyrus, or 58 percent more than the stock's close on Friday, the two companies said in a statement yesterday. Shares of Gyrus soared 57 percent in London trading. The purchase would add scalpels and tools for sealing blood vessels to the Tokyo-based company's lineup of medical equipment, its largest division by revenue. Olympus earlier this month raised its annual profit forecast for a second time, citing sales of digital cameras and endoscopes that examine internal organs. The acquisition would place the companies to "benefit from the continuing shift toward minimally invasive surgical procedures," the statement said. Olympus's medical division posted sales of 168.2 billion

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Calyon Securities (USA) on Monday upgraded shares of Bronco Drilling to add from netural and raised its price target to $17 a share. The move came after Bronco said late Thursday it would buy a 25% equity interest in Challenger Limited, which has operations in Libya, for $5 million in cash plus six drilling rigs. Challenger will also purchase four rigs and other equipment from Bronco for $12 million. Analyst Mark S. Urness said the deal marks a "smart strategic move for a small company" and it "provides both growth and diversification benefits." (Corrects stock trading symbol.)

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Manitowoc Co. said late Thursday it priced its offering of 4 million shares at $39.48 a share. Manitowoc expects to secure about $156.9 million in net proceeds. The funds will be used to repay debt and for other general corporate purposes, said Manitowoc. The company also said the agreement does not provide an option for the underwriter to purchase additional shares from the company to cover over-allotments. Morgan Stanley is the sole book-runner for the deal. The offering comes as the company joins the S&P 500 Index.

CHINA'S Zijin Mining Group Co has agreed to buy a 20-percent stake in a gold-copper project from a Philippine mining company for US$70 million. Zijin will take the 20-percent interest in Far Southeast Gold Resources Inc from Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co, it said in a statement after the market closed on Thursday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Shares in southeastern Fujian Province-based Zijin, China's leading gold miner, fell 3.05 percent to HK$12.72 (US$1.64) yesterday. But they had risen 0.6 percent on Thursday, bucking a general downturn in Hong Kong, as some may have learnt of the deal earlier. Zijin said the disclosure on the proposed purchase is made on voluntary basis. The Far Southeast project, in Benguet, the Philippines, has mineable ore reserves of 123 million tons, containing 0.8 percent copper and 1.51 grams of gold per ton, according to Lepanto, citing a 1995 feasibility study. Lepanto owns 60 percent of the project. The proposed acquisition is subject to

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Pathmark Stores Inc. said Thursday that its shareholders approved the proposed purchase of a wholly owned subsidiary of Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc., known as A&P. Under the deal, Pathmark stockholders will receive $9 in cash and 0.12963 shares of A&P common stock in exchange for each Pathmark share. The Carteret, N.J.-based supermarket chain expects the deal to close by the end of December.

STANDARD Life Plc agreed to buy Resolution Plc, the UK's biggest administrator of closed life-insurance funds, for 4.9 billion pounds (US$10 billion) in the biggest takeover of a British insurer since 2000. Standard Life "will be one of the UK's leading life and pensions companies," the Edinburgh-based company said yesterday in a statement. Standard Life's proposal, backed by the Resolution board, amounts to 714.5 pence a share in cash and stock at Thursday's closing price, Bloomberg News said. "It will significantly expand our UK operations," Chief Executive Officer Sandy Crombie said in the statement. "We are on course to deliver on our financial targets. This recommended offer for Resolution is the next step." Standard Life's deal breaks Resolution's July agreement to buy Friends Provident Plc for 3.8 billion pounds. It also topped an offer of 691 pence a share last week from Pearl Group Ltd, Resolution's closest rival in the business of buying

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Affiliates of Warburg Pincus have completed the purchase of Bausch & Lomb Inc. for $4.5 billion, including about $830 million of debt, the companies said Friday. Bausch & Lomb stock will stop trading on the New York Stock Exchange at market close Friday and be delisted. Under the deal, Bausch & Lomb shareholders will receive $65 for each share of Bausch & Lomb common stock.

SAP AG, the world's biggest maker of business-management software, fell the most in eight months in German stock market trading yesterday after predicting that its 4.8 billion-euro (US$6.8 billion) acquisition of Business Objects SA would depress earnings. SAP fell as much as 6.4 percent to 38.98 euros in Frankfurt, and traded at 39.21 euros as of 10:47am, valuing the company at 49.8 billion euros. The purchase of Business Objects, for 42 euros in cash a share, will reduce earnings per share next year before adding to profit in 2009, SAP said late on Sunday. The deal is the biggest purchase in SAP's 35-year history. The acquisition marks a departure from Walldorf, Germany-based SAP's strategy of expanding mainly without acquisitions. Oracle Corp, SAP's largest rival in software used to manage processes such as billing and payroll, has spent more than US$25 billion on purchases since 2005, making it the most acquisitive company in the software industry. "It's the U-turn strategy," Ioannis Papassavvas, a fund manager at Allianz Global Investors in Frankfurt, told Bloomberg News. "They made the acquisition to cover the possible incompetence to increase earnings next year. They're also overpaying." SAP's offer is 20 percent more than Business Objects's closing price in Paris on Friday. Business Objects is the world's largest maker of software that tracks corporate databases and counts Walt Disney Co and Unilever NV among its 44,000 clients. Business Objects, based in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, supports the "friendly takeover," and its management board plans to recommend the offer to shareholders, subject to regulatory requirements. SAP will finance the purchase using available cash and borrowings. The deal will cut earnings per share under US accounting standards by "mid single digit" euro cents, and increase per-share earnings starting in 2009, SAP said. SAP expects the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2008. John Schwarz will remain chief executive officer of Business Objects, which will become a stand-alone unit. "It's the unique combination of two market leaders," SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said on a conference call on Sunday. "We like the open-ended, independent business-intelligence platform of Business Objects." Kagermann said as recently as last month that he wasn't under "any pressure" to make a large acquisition.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Concur Technologies Inc. on Friday filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to 4.7 million shares of common stock from time to time. The company said it plans to use net proceeds from the offering to fund part of the consideration for its proposed acquisition of H-G Holdings Inc., a provider of automated, on-demand expense management services. In late July, Concur agreed to buy H-G Holdings, a privately held company, for $160 million. Concur, a Redmond, Wash., provider of corporate expense-management software, said the deal will add to pro forma earnings in its 2008 fiscal year. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities and Jefferies & Co. were listed as underwriters for the offering. The underwriters also have the option to purchase up to 705,000 additional shares to cover overallotments, Friday's SEC filing said. Concur's shares closed Thursday at $27.15 each.